Oscar-winning actor Jamie Lee Curtis said Monday that an artificial intelligence-generated video depicting her likeness was finally removed from Instagram after she made a public appeal directly to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Curtis said she had no luck going through the proper channels to try to get Meta to take down the AI-generated advertisement — which used manipulated footage of Curtis to make it seem as if she were endorsing a dental product — so the actor made a public appeal to Zuckerberg in a post on Instagram.
“It’s come to this @zuck,” Curtis wrote on Instagram, tagging Zuckerberg’s account.
“Hi. We have never met. My name is Jamie Lee Curtis and I have gone through every proper channel to ask you and your team to take down this totally AI fake commercial for some bullsh– that I didn’t authorize, agree to or endorse,” she wrote. “I tried to DM you and slide on in, but you don’t follow me so I’ve had to take to the public instaverse to try to reach you.”
Curtis said she takes pride in “telling the truth and saying it like it is,” but added that having “fake words put in my mouth, diminishes my opportunities to actually speak my truth.”
She continued: “I’ve been told that if I ask you directly, maybe you will encourage your team to police it and remove it. I long ago deleted Twitter, so this is the only way I can think of reaching you.”
Later that day, Curtis commented on her initial post to say her efforts were successful.
“IT WORKED! YAY INTERNET! SHAME HAS IT’S VALUE! THANKS ALL WHO CHIMED IN AND HELPED RECTIFY!” she wrote.
A spokesperson for Meta told The Hill that “the ads were in violation and have since been removed.”
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Curtis noted she’s “certainly not the first” high-profile celebrity to have their likeness manipulated. Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks and Drake have dealt with similar issues amid the rise in AI-generated images.
